Anozero’19 Biennial shows 39 artists from 21 countries in Coimbra
The third edition of the Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art (Anozero’19), taking place between November 2 and December 29, has the participation, in different spaces of the city, of 39 artists from 21 countries, was announced today.
Curated by the professor at the University of São Paulo and curator-general of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Brazil, Agnaldo Farias, and having as its assistant curators Lígia Afonso and Nuno de Brito e Rocha, the event is inspired and adopts the title “A Terceira”. margin “,” borrowed “from the tale” The Third Bank of the River “, by João Guimarães Rosa.
The tale presents, “by the voice of a son, the story of a father who, living in a village by the river, decides to have a canoe built to enter and never to leave again” in an “open-air self-reflection” ( which gives no explanation), configuring a gesture that “defines the territory, tremendous, unstable, unfathomable and unspeakable, from the third margin, which is our contemporaneity”.
Five sentences from the Brazilian writer’s tale act as conceptual axes for “possible unfolding of the biennial, which” will be interpreted “by curators, artists, authors and students of the University of Coimbra (UC), was underlined today, at a press conference presenting the biennial program.
These phrases suggest silence (“our father said nothing”), passage (“far away, not found”), marginality (“smugglers, border dwellers”), invention (“executed invention”), and finally militancy (“enough of a purpose”).
“The third bank” rests on three pillars: exhibition, activation program and book, presenting the exhibition works by 39 artists in “different parts of the city, strongly activating their architectural and intangible heritage, partially qualified by UNESCO”, sustained the general curator of the biennial.
British filmmaker and visual artist Steve McQueen, director of “Twelve Slave Years” (Turner Prize 1999), and Portuguese duo João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva (who represented Portugal at the Venice Art Biennial in 2009), are some of the 39 artists (19 women, 20 men) whose works will be on Anozero’19.
This year’s biennial artist list, with twenty curated works, also includes, for example, Anna Boghiguian, Bruno Zhu, Daniel V. Melim, Erika Verzutti, Joanna Piotrowska, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Magdalena Jitrik, Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela. or Tomás Cunha Ferreira, who presents the parallel curation of “ShipShape”, an exhibition around visual, concrete and experimental poetry.
“The biennial spans the streets of the city center” (Chiado Building, City Hall and Avenida Galleries), the buildings of the UC (College of Arts and Science Museum / Chimico Laboratory and Natural History Gallery) and the spaces of the Coimbra’s Plastic Arts Circle (CAPC), in addition to the “occupation of the unique Santa Clara-a-Nova Convent”, on the left bank of Mondego, which is Anozero’s main space.
Part of the Convent, which belongs to the Ministry of Defense, is expected to move to the municipality for a period of 50 years to become the biennial’s landmark throughout the year, admitted Carlos Antunes, director of the Fine Arts Circle. Coimbra (CAPC), Anozero’s promoter, in cooperation with UC, Coimbra City Council, and Tourism Center of Portugal.
The process of granting monasteries to the municipality is underway, said the councilwoman responsible for culture, Carina Gomes. It is a complex process, because, in addition to involving several entities, the eighteenth-century monument is included (for the most part) in Revive, a program that seeks the recovery of real estate of recognized interest, through its concession to private.
This year’s edition of the Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art involves an investment of around half a million euros, supported by the City Hall, University, Tourism Center of Portugal and patrons, with a participation of about 25% of its cost.
In addition to Agnaldo Farias, Carina Gomes, Carlos Antunes, the 2019 biennial program presentation session was attended by UC Vice-Chancellor Delfim Leão, the president of Turismo Centro de Portugal, Pedro Machado, and assistant curator Ligia Afonso
